By Elena Siniscalco
Sadiq Khan accused the government of forcing local councils to waste money bidding for cash as part of the “levelling up fund”.
Speaking in front of the Levelling Up Committee, he said councils were criticised if they fail to bid for funding from Westminster, even though only one in five councils is successful.
The London Mayor said the £2bn Levelling Up fund had been a “disaster” for London and accused the government of scapegoating the capital, even though it has some of the highest deprivation levels in the country.
“Oliver Twist didn’t have to pay to beg,” he told MPs, “You spend money to bid, money to have the privilege of having a begging bowl”.
“We’re being hollowed out of the money we have, and we’re bidding for a smaller amount (from government),” he added.
His comments come in the wake of heavy criticism of how the “levelling up” money was doled out, with discontent on both the Conservative and opposite benches.
Labour termed it a “Hunger Games-style contest where communities are pitted against one another”.
Some councils in London – including Whitechapel, Lewisham and Camden – received some of the £151.3m awarded to the capital. The biggest beneficiary was the North West, receiving £354m.
Conservative mayor for the West Midlands Andy Street has also condemned the “begging bowl culture” of central funding.
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